horseshoeing

Editor's note: Bill Casner, a long-time participant in many facets of racing, is probably best known for founding WinStar Farm with Kenny Troutt and winning the 2010 GI Kentucky Derby with Super Saver. Among Casner's many roles in the sport have been founding director of the Race for Education and Kentucky Equine Education Program (KEEP). He has sold his interest in WinStar to Troutt and currently operates as Casner Racing. Horse racing is in a firestorm. We are at survival tipping point. The decisions that are made in the short...

Farrier Tales continues to pull back the curtain on all things horse, horseshoeing, farrier, and related science, attempting to provide useful information and insight for horse professionals and enthusiasts.  Have you ever wondered why your farrier often seems so grumpy? The headline, a quote from the classic movie Cool Hand Luke, basically sums it up. Over the course of my career, I have cultivated innumerable friendships with a number of colleagues from various backgrounds and nationalities. Despite our broad range of disciplines and skill sets, many of our shared concerns...

Periodically I find myself on the other end of a call with a client seeking a nonexistent 'tool' in my bag of tricks. It can be awkward to expose one's own ignorance on a topic, not to mention uncomfortable. In these instances, I suspect most farriers don't make it a habit of turning away 'good' clients and some of them reply, "Oh sure, I do that, or use that product all of the time." Shoeing sometimes requires a certain degree of salesmanship; I believe the Irish call it malarkey. Given...

Full disclosure, for anyone who knows me or has spotted my videos (Farrier Tales), I am not a 'plater,' but I am guessing that would be a foregone conclusion given the rotund nature of the horses featured. In fairness to them, they do go fast, but tend to have a few obstacles in the way. As one might expect, there is a significant amount of client crossover with the racing and show worlds; I've spent a fair amount of time at the farms, handling broodmares, wrestling babies and shoeing my...

In Global Views, Godolphin Flying Start trainees provide insight into practices experienced and observations taken on their worldwide travels. Second-year trainee Amelie Lemercier tells us about innovative farriery. Some great leaders around the world are consistently embracing innovation and new technologies to lead the industry forward. As Godolphin Flying Start trainees, we are lucky enough to learn about those innovations through lectures and presentations, when passionate people are more than happy to share with us what they have been working on. From veterinary school in Dublin, farriery school in Kentucky...